The invention concerns an internal combustion engine and a method for operating an internal combustion engine.
In the case of internal combustion engines that are operated with so-called multi-point injection (MPI), the ignition behavior is typically coupled to a residual gas content in a combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine and a global combustion air-fuel ratio, which is also referred to as the lambda value. In this case, regions that are located in the immediate vicinity around an ignition source are seen as particularly critical. In order to be able to ignite even very weak mixtures in the combustion chamber, said combustion chamber is typically divided into a main chamber and a prechamber, wherein reliable ignition can be guaranteed in the smaller prechamber volume, and wherein flares passing from the prechamber to the main chamber can guarantee reliable ignition of the mixture even in the larger volume of the main chamber. In the case of prechambers flushed with gas that are directly connected to a combustion gas supply, additional components must be provided, for example an additional gas compressor, a gas cooler, and a combustion gas supply for each combustion chamber. It is also possible that a prechamber that is flushed with gas is coupled to a high-pressure side of a multi-point injection system, wherein the coupling is therefore connected upstream of an actuatable valve for multi-point injection. Thus, however, the amount of fuel flushed in the prechamber depends on the supply pressure in the fuel line upstream of the actuatable valve of the multi-point injection system.